Category: Working!!! 3

A few months back I voiced my frustration over Working!!!’s apparent reluctance to deliver a proper resolution to the Inami x Takanashi romance, instead ending on a “To Be Continued.” Well, this hour-long special is that promised continuation…and baby, it delivers. All is forgiven.

I still think this could have gotten done in the last couple of episodes of the threequel, but in hindsight, I didn’t mind the material we got instead, as well as this special that gives the resolution plenty of time and space to unfold.

Because while there are lots of other good things going on in this special—Yamada coming to grips with being reunited with her mom; Popura trying to be the best future chief she can be; Nazuna preparing to take over the world one day—most of the time the focus is where it should be: on our main couple.

Takanashi continues to cross-dress on order from his mother, who would deny him both romance and manhood as long as he’s dishonest about his feelings.

Yachiyo is concerned about Takanashi (mostly because he’s a good worker and she needs the labor) so when Inami beseeches her for a time when she can run into Takanashi (who had his schedule adjusted to avoid her), the boss is happy to comply.

Inami lies in wait and confronts Takanashi, who is very reasonable with her, and seems to be on the cusp of saying what he should have said a long time ago, but yet again a parent butts in and delays the catharsis; his mother, again, not allowing a son who lies to date anyone.

The only way this stalemate will be broken is if Inami sallies forth to rescue Takanashi as his knight in…his own work uniform. I love the idea and the symmetry of Inami dressing as a boy to save the one she loves dressed as a girl (especially the little dig Yamada gets in about her wrapping her chest).

But the outfit won’t be enough: Inami must face a gauntlet of Takanashi’s sisters, deployed by her mother to test her. The first challenger is Kazue, but Inami gets past her accidentally by congratulating her on her re-marriage. Okay…maybe this won’t be so hard after all…but that doesn’t mean it isn’t funny!

Izumi is next, but she’s actually glad Souta ended up with Inami, so forfeits their fight, accepting a forehead flick as defeat even though said flick never reaches her forehead. Just when it looks as if Kozue has Inami’s number (revealing Inami can only fight against men), when her buds show up looking for her, she totally flakes out.

But like Izumi, she’s on Inami’s side. So is Inami’s final challenger Nazuna, who instead tests how nice a person she is by refusing to fight her even though Nazuna seems to be rearing for one.

Nazuna later becomes a powerful advocate for Inami at their home, where her mother remains unconvinced Souta should be freed. When we see the photo Nazuna produces of her mother as a 17-year-old arguably even tinier and cuter than even Popura, it’s concrete proof of how much people can change, if you just give them the opportunity to do so.

The clincher for Souta’s mom is when Popura shows up, and she realizes her son has changed: he went for the ordinary-sized girl over the tiny one.

Also extremely amusing is the fact Takanashi’s mom keeps that picture of her around her office because despite loathing how tiny she once was, she shares the same love of tiny cute things as her son, which is why she takes an instant liking to Popura, using her as a prayer offering, then attempting to kidnap her as she returns to work, satisfied Souta is on the right track.

Takanashi brings up his intense affection for all things cute and small, which Inami initially and wrongly mistakes for a soft rejection. Takanashi goes on to say he doesn’t just want to be someone who can proclaim loudly and proudly that he loves tiny cute things; but that he can proclaim that he loves all the things he loves – like Inami.

He finally, finalllllly confesses, she says she feels the same way, he says he’s known that for some time, and she lets him take her hand the way lovers do, without creepy CGI grabbing wands. THANK GOD.

After that wonderful exchange, and all the fun and hilarious stuff that led up to it, I stand fully propitiated. Working!!! took a while to get to where it ended up (three cours and a special, to be exact), but it got there. It didn’t let me down.

Hell, it almost makes me want to go all the way back to the beginning, this time without the stress of not knowing when or even if things will work out…because they did. So I guess there’s nothing left to say but Thank you, Working!!!, for all the laughter-food!

GODDAMNIT, WORKING!!!. Would it kill you to resolve what has remained a romantic standstill for three seasons?!! Don’t get me wrong; I love Working!!!…but I fucking HATEWORKING!!! sometimes. And as good a start as it gets off on, this episode is unfortunately one of those times. I know, Japanese anime usually tend to focus more on maintaining a status quo than progressing relationships, but Working!!! proved it could buck the trend by finally bringing Yachiyo and Satou together. Is it so much to ask that they do the same with Takanashi and Inami?

Apparently it is; at least in a 13-episode span. And wouldn’t you know it, it isn’t any particular problem between the two that causes the impasse from continuing. Rather, it’s freaking parents. First, Inami’s estranged father, who crashes Inami’s date with Takanashi when she forgets her wallet, then calls into question Takanashi’s fitness to date his daughter due to his transvestite tendencies (for which his mother can be blamed). Thus, the date goes pear-shaped, returning the two to their status quo of being cordial, even affectionate with one another, but not yet a couple.

This displeased me. What displeased me even more was that precious minutes of this supposed finale were spent revisiting whether Inami has been cured of her androphobia, or exploring Souma’s scopophobia, or Popura’s atychiphobia. These phobias are all well and good, but the resolution of Yachiyo x Satou gave me hope the same would be done with Inami x Takanashi. Only yet again, Working!!! is dilatory; skittish about resolving its most compelling romantic entanglement, for no other reason than it need to keep going a little bit longer.

That “little bit longer”, it seems, will come in the form of an hour-long special, in which hopefully the fact that Takanashi flakes out on another get-together with Inami due to the intervention of his mother will be resolved. I certainly hope it does, because frankly, I’m sick of the status quo. I know this is slice-of-life, and it’s a comedy, but I didn’t introduce these serious romantic elements, the show did, and it’s the show’s responsibility to follow through and stop leading me on, damnit!

Satou is back and he and Yachiyo are now a couple, but it’s pretty much business as usual at Wagnaria…except for the fact Takanashi is now “Kotori-chan.” Everyone’s a little worried about this, but he claims it’s not a compulsive thing; he’s dressing as a girl (again) to help sort out his feelings for Inami, which seems arbitrary and silly at first, but gradually comes to make more sense by the very end.

Until then, he witnesses Yamada finally learn how to make a proper billing slip, and Kirio plays along that he’s a girl, and manages to get Takanashi to describe the kind of person he likes (which is just a description of Inami) before revealing he knew it was him all along (and getting slugged for it in a way that also calls Inami to mind!).

Later, Takanashi and Satou notice that Souma has been unusually quiet and un-meddling lately, though they learn it’s just because he purchased a camera that lets him be voyeuristic from a further distance, amassing a large collection of albums full of photos of Wagnaria staff. Takanashi and Satou ending up confiscating the ones of Inami and Yachiyo, respectively. Was it Souma’s intent all along?

As for Popura, she’s called into the break room after work to find Yachiyo and Kyoko waiting for her. I’d be just as worried as she was that she might be in some kind of trouble (no matter how nice they are, a boss can’t arrange a private talk without an underling worrying it’s bad).

Turns out Yachiyo is leaving Wagnaria to use what she’s learned there to fluorish on her own. Satou is aware and supportive, natch. And Yachiyo, Kyoko, and even Satou believe Popura has grown enough to become the next chief, replacing Yachiyo. This has been a long time coming, as we’ve seen Popura thrive all season as her co-workers have been distracted by personal issues.

Finally, Takanashi’s cross-dressing rather surprisingly pays off. From his perspective, at least, he feels he and Inami can interact a lot more naturally when he’s pretending to be a girl. He’s also in the unique position to ask her if she prefers if he’s a girl or a boy. Suddenly on the spot, Inami answers honestly: she prefers the boy.

Then, out of the blue, Takanashi invites her to come with him to the store she couldn’t find on her own because she got lost. In effect, a date. He can scarcely believe he did it, but he did, and tomorrow, he’ll be back to being Takanashi. To which I say, bravo! Unfortunately, there’s only one episode of Working!!! left to explore a Takanashi-Inami date, if it actually happens, but if it does and the two can progress a little more, I’ll take it.

Now this is more like it: a Working!!! with focus and progress, which deftly balances the long-awaited development of long-standing serial plot with the show’s usual slice-of-life and character-derived comedy. Long has the shy Satou suffered in Wagnaria’s kitchen, unable to properly express his feelings for Yachiyo. Long has the sheltered, isolated Yachiyo suffered in Wagnaria’s dining room, unable to properly express her feelings for Satou.

This week, building on their birthday date (which ended awkwardly), the couple finally manages to come together and say what needs to be said without any misunderstandings or narrative half-measures. After nearly three seasons, we’re finally thrown a whole bone, as the show surrenders and breaks the status quo of these two’s relationship. And I couldn’t be happier.

Neither could Yachiyo, it would seem, as she practically buries the twee Popura in her Flowers of Happiness. Then those flowers wilt when Kyoko refuses to let her make any more parfaits or other treats for her, showing this transition isn’t without difficulties. But this is merely Kyoko trying too hard to get out of the way of Satou.

While he’s not happy about Kyoko being such a force in Yachiyo’s life, the fact is he fell for the Yachiyo who loves and admires Kyoko, and even if a lot of things will change now that he and Yachiyo are dating, Yachiyo making Kyoko parfaits and talking about Kyoko to him all the time don’t have to go away.

In the light of what turns out to be a fairly harmless transition (except to Satou’s stress-sensitive stomach, for which he takes off two weeks), Kyoko lifts the co-worker dating ban, with a very encouraging eye towards Takanashi, knowing full well his feelings for Inami. In fact, now that the seemingly impossible (Satou and Yachiyo dating) has occured, it opens up the possibility the show could end with Takanashi figuring out what to do about Inami, as Satou did. Whether he will remains up in the air, as for now he dresses in drag as “Kotori-chan.”

As for Satou and Yachiyo, they remain painfully adorable in every scene they’re in together, especially now that the air has been cleared and there are no more secrets about who love whom: they both love each other, and it’s magnificent. Of course, Yachiyo is still new to many of the ways of the world, and ends up getting lost in the dark on her way to Satou’s apartment, but the fact she’s always carrying a katana offers her some protection from unsavory elements.

I also appreciate that after Yachiyo cooks dinner for Satou, and there are no options for her to get home at the late hour, she simply spends the night, taking Satou’s bed while he takes the floor. There’s a lovely casual practicality to it. I just wish we could have gotten a glimpse of the two talking in the dark before drifting off to sleep.

Souta and Kozue both have dreams about unpleasant experiences with their infamous mother Shizuka this week. Souta remembers being dressed as a girl against his will (perhaps a reason he has a fetish for cute things) while Kozue laments that her mother never remembers her name (perhaps a reason she drinks so much). However, she has a couple of friends who care about her (even if they have trouble always dealing with her) in Mitsuki and Youhei.

The reason both siblings dream of their mother is that she’s apparently on her way to visiting her children after an untold amount of time away working. She reminds me of Chitoge’s mother, only we find out a lot less about her other than the fact she’s extremely busy and powerful and she seems to have a unique way of messing with her kids, from laughing at Kazue’s marriage, divorce, and reconciliation, to making Izumi cook despite protests she’ll die, to persistently forgetting Kozue, the middle child, even exists.

While there still may be a part of her that still wants Souta in women’s clothing (and indeed, he’s dressed in drag independently for various reasons throughout Working’s run), his primary concern is that she’s found out he likes a girl, and he worries she’ll put said girl (Inami) under undue scrutiny. He vows to protect Inami no matter what, but his mixed reactions to her (bouncing his head off a wall, then walking her home with their hands closer together) continue to confuse Inami. One of these days, these two are going to figure it out. But then again, maybe they never will. Still, any glimmer of progress is appreciated.

Working!!! starts off with a typical scene—Yachiyo talking about Kyouko to Satou while Souma smirks—with the added element of a rapt Popura. Turns out she’s noticing something different about the two, surprising Inami, who assumed Popura already knew Satou was in love with Yachiyo.

One person who barely gets noticed ever is Otoo’s wife Haruna. Her almost nonexistent presence, and the fact she needs to be chained up in order to avoid losing her again, remains one of the more entertaining teritary characters in the show. Even better, ever since Otoo married her, his own presence has gradually diminished, making them a “stealth couple”, which considering how rarely they show up in the show, makes perfect sense.

Another tertiary character who hasn’t appeared in a while is Minegishi, who comes to Wagnaria to report Yamada’s mom is “back on track” as one of Takenashi’s mom’s executive assistants (a job he lets slide involves assassination, among other things).

Souma sent a vague report about Takenashi and Inami to her, but Takenashi sends him away before he can mention something important to him. When he comes back to try again, he encounters Inami out back, and when he touches her to get her attention, something happens that hasn’t happened seemingly all season: she slugs someone.

Minegishi runs off, and Inami is mortified and ashamed, but Takenashi is there to assure her that not only did Minegishi of all people deserve to be punched (and he actually enjoyed it due to his masochism) but it inspired Minegishi to seek out a punch he had missed: that of his ex-wife, Takenashi’s oldest sister Kozue. He rather embarrassingly re-proposes to her at work, and she says yes!

Besides all that, Takenashi takes Inami’s hands in hers, and when she doesn’t feel the compulsion to punch him, he takes it as evidence she’s still cured of her androphobia, and her fists merely struck someone who both deserved and didn’t mind being struck. It’s a nice acknowledgement of the progress she’s made personally, and in her relationship with Takenashi, even though neither of them have yet to be clear about their mutual feelings.

Minegishi comes back not to scold Inami, but to thank her, as well as to tell Takenashi that his mother, a powerful politician and VIP who is on the news (his co-workers never watch), is returning home, much to his consternation. Considering the myriad personalities of her kids, Mama Katanashi could be literally anyone…I look forward to meeting her and watching everyone I know bounce off of her!

Yamada may have moved back home, but she remains at Wagnaria after Otoo and Kyouko allowed her to keep coming in like Takanashi’s little sister to help out, and spending the night there when her mother isn’t home. So in a way, there hasn’t been a major change in the status quo, aside from the fact Yamada is usually going home and is now on better terms with her mom—though not her brother Kirio.

After that Aoicentric episode, this one is more of a grab bag, with a little story involving just about everyone from Otoo reuniting with his wife to Souta having to get a birthday present for Yachiyo (he actually gives her four for the four years he’s liked her).

Many of these stories involve a Yamato in one way or another. Takanashi is annoyed that Kirio is talking so pleasantly with Inami, because he likes Inami, but won’t acknowledge that. He ends up beating Kirio up too much, and must recite a long-winded compliment that Takanashi thinks sounds like a joke, and it’s also how Inami interprets it, embarrassing her. So no real movement there.

In another non-Yamada-related tidbit, Takanashi notices Popura may have shrunk, and Souma confirms she’s lost around 2cm, causing her to become depressed, because as much as she likes being pet by Katanashi, she also wants to grow more, not less. Turns out she actually did grow a centimeter, only because Takanashi grew three, she didn’t gain any ground, causing her to become depressed again.

Back to Aoi, who convinces her mom over a period of six weeks to buy her a cell phone, then sends her mom a text, waits 30 minutes, and gets a blank reply back. Kirio, full of hidden talents, interprets the blank text as a long-winded inner monologue going on in their mother’s head about what Aoi’s original text meant and how best to respond.

Finally, Kirio is sick of Aoi not acknowledging him as her true big brother (thanks to that natto theft incident), so he tries to become her big brother by becoming Souma’s little brother, which he attempts in the most ridiculous, true-to-the-Yamadas manner possible.

It’s actually Souta, whom Kirio asks for advice, who tells Kirio to take this route, in order to best annoy Souma as payback. But it isn’t long before the plan backfires and Kirio is annoying Souta to the point he must retreat from his own kitchen. Don’t get involved with Kirio; it isn’t worth it!

A lot of the interpersonal conflicts that arise in Working!! come down to people interpreting each others actions, words, or lack of words incorrectly; making the wrong assumptions. So it’s no surprise that the core conflict of Yamada Aoi—that she’s run away from home—comes down to such misinterpretations. After all, she’s one of the strangest communicators out there, having a running third-person commentary of her life as she lives it.

Aoi is also bright and friendly and warm and cute—when she’s not being impetuous, cocky, or a huge hassle to others. Her mom is not any of those things. She comes off to many like a robot, and Kirio and Aoi were even furnished with “mom manuals” in order to interpret her subtle facial expressions, since she speaks so little. Aoi is in conflict with her mom because she never RTFM.

As such, Aoi interpreted her mother foisting huge books on her to mean she was coldly forcing her to cram, even though her mother inside was simply worried about Aoi’s future. And Kirio eating her special natto (which he didn’t think was so great) is the last straw (or natto strand). Aoi tries to form a new family in Wagnaria, then Takanashi’s house, but her proper place is with her family; it’s just a matter of being convinced.

The issue is brought to the forefront, and resolved, by two side characters. Aoi’s mom happens to be Takanashi’s eldest sister’s masochistic ex-husband, and Otoo’s often-lost wife Haruna convinces Aoi to go back home based on the principle of “ships passing in the night”, or family members and friends who may have wildly different ways of looking at and interacting with the world can still bump into each other on occasion, which is something to be celebrated.

Aoi thus learns the conciliatory, re-connecting value of a hug from her mother (who tracked her down, ninja-style), and returns home, even though she still considers Souma a better big brother than Kirio. But while this means Aoi will no longer be living either at the restaurant or Takanashi’s, I’m sure she’ll still be “working” there on occasion; as long as it doesn’t interfere with her studies.

Working!!’s frequent teases into serialized territory that don’t pay off or end in a slightly more amicable status quo can sometimes set me off, as they did last week, but I was happy to see it table the Takanashi/Inami saga for now.

The recent developments (or lack thereof) between both the two of them and Souta/Todoroki have not been lost on Souma, who laments that none of the four of them are particularly forthcoming about the salacious details (or lack thereof) he desires.

I didn’t hate Yamada as much this week either, because instead of braying on about natto and generally not making any sense in an unfunny way, she names Souma her big brother and becomes his sidekick in the acquisition of salacious details about their co-workers.

Takanashi is all out of sorts because of all his recent thoughts about Inami, so he feels he can find some comfort and solace in the simple petting of Popura’s head. Alas, he doesn’t find what he’s looking for, as he finds Popura grumpy and unwilling to talk to him or accept any food or drink.

Yamada posits that Popura is angry and stressed out from having to pick up the slack from everyone else (because they’re all in their heads about their would-be love interests). Her theory is not without merit, but it’s quickly debunked when Popura reveals she has a nasty canker sore.

The next day she stays home with a fever. As Nazuna fills in for her (as an unpaid intern), Popura starts having fever-induced hallucinations of a five-inch Satou, who charges her with saving the world from an evil version of Takanashi who is trying to shrink the entire world.

MiniSatou conjures up a shabby-looking stick, and Popura’s beam has no effect on Takanashi, but only makes her shrink to a smaller size than MiniSatou. Finally, she wakes up, having slipped into a fever dream. This was a nice, imaginative departure from the usual restaurant setting.

Finally, we turn back to Yamada, which is usually a bad thing, but in this case her brother Kirio arrives to find her and take her home. I think I remember something like this happening in Working’!! 2, but I’m always happy when (almost) everyone is trying to inject some reality into Yamada’s life. At the end of the day she is a runaway who really should return to her family.

Only Souma suggests they send Kirio home for now, giving Yamada a reprieve from that reality despite the fact she left the attic he told her to hide in. I don’t know if she’ll ever go home, but it would obviously be better if it’s of her own volition and not by force.

While I like the fact that while trying to focus on work instead of obsessing over the meaning of Inami’s words last week has Souta cleaning the house so intensely that everything sparkles for the duration of the episode, this episode still felt a bit stretched-out and listless, tackling an issue that we’re no strangers to, but very much want to see more progress on rather than additional deliberation.

That issue is Inami x Souta. Thirty-one episodes have aired without resolving this romance, and I’ll admit, I’m just about as exhausted by the will-they-won’t-they as Izumi is with activities like standing, talking, and being outside. Worse, nothing really new is added to the equation this week. Izumi simply gets the wrong idea and sets Inami and Souta on a blind date.

Mind you, the sparkly house, image of Inami in a paper bag and boxing gloves, and then burning up are all fun, but they don’t change the fact that 90% of what they should be verbally expressing to each other remains stubbornly in their respective heads, running around in circles. It dawns on Souta that these events prove that Inami likes him, and Inami herself believes she said enough to give him that impression, but nothing comes of it; he simply gets bashful and scurries off. But hey, at least she didn’t punch him!

Worse still, an already stretched-out A-story was padded rather clunkily by a seriously lacking B-story in which Yamada runs around with Natto, spills it on her, declares she’s “Done With Natto”, and is then convinced to go back to it after she learns most everyone’s favorite foods are soy-based. We get it; Yamada’s a big ol’ weirdo. Yet the episode insisted on banging a pot behind our heads shouting “OMG ISN’T YAMADA SO WEIRD!” I would have honestly preferred a B-story centered on literally anyone else. This was a rare miss for Working!!.

This week, something that in hindsight seems obvious became evident: the title Working!! doesn’t just refer to a bunch of quirky people working in a restaurant. That’s just the setting. It can also be about those quirky people working things out with one another, like Yachiyo and Satou, or Inami and Takanashi.

After their drinking date, Yachiyo is consumed with the meaning of Satou’s sudden, warm, but cryptic hug. She knows she didn’t dislike it and wouldn’t be opposed to more of it, but has no idea why Satou did it.

When she confronts him in the kitchen, he tells her to figure it out for herself, while the best she manages to relay to him is that the thought of being friends with him makes her gloomy, without clarifying that she doesn’t want to be JUST friends.

Yachiyo is so distracted she’s making mistakes in her work, but thankfully the episode doesn’t make that a practical excuse for her to give up on Satou. Working!! is also about the characters helping out one of their own when they’re in some kind of trouble or acting strangely, as Yachiyo is.

To that end, Popura, the second-most senior server after Yachiyo, makes it work, picking up the slack and delegating all of the work Yachiyo is forgetting to do to everyone else, with each task optimized for the worker’s unique talents and quirks.

Meanwhile, Kyouko’s underling Mitsuki shows up to drill Satou on his knowledge of Yachiyo, only to learn he knows a lot more about Kyouko since Yachiyo has classically always talked about her in front of him, and because he likes her, he doesn’t just take a fake interest; he retains the information, no matter how inane. Mitsuki thinks this means he loves Kyouko, but it really means he loves Yachiyo.

When Kyouko finds out about Yachiyo’s predicament, she solves it in the most direct, Shirafuji Kyouko Way possible: locking the two would-be lovebirds in the supply closet.

And it actually works! Yachiyo finds she can talk with Satou normally while they’re busy working, and they get on the same page about wanting to continue to act and talk normally. Yachiyo then tries to slip in her desire for Satou to take her out again sometime, but in her rush to make a dramatic exit, she forgets the door is locked.

Still, in that stockroom, these two took a little more stock in what they mean to one another, and while their future doesn’t look easy, it still looks bright.

The rest of the episode is devoted to a relationship that hasn’t gotten much play this season, and indeed seems to have regressed: that of Takanashi and Inami. The former starts to notice how cute Inami is (now that she’s punching men, and him, a lot less), even though this goes against his obsession with tiny, cute things.

He strains to explain these feelings—maybe it’s Inami’s tiny bust affecting him?—but he can’t quite accept what Kirio says (loudly and obnoxiously): that the reason he’s had eyes for Inami lately is that he’s in love with her. Her, a mature woman far older than he likes.

As Popura and Kyouko helped Yachiyo out with her problem, Yamada is trying to help Inami out, putting her “on the market” by constantly approaching Takanashi with methods that only intensify his feelings. His bizarre reactions discourage Inami, but she eventually gets it out of him that she’s been giving him a “good vibe”, but he isn’t able to confess he finds her “slightly, barely, blink-and-you-miss-it cute.”

He then takes up his paternal platitudes about her getting over her hatred of men and living happily ever after with the man she loves. Inami is understandably hurt that Takanashi clearly intends to eliminate himself from any equation involving her, if only due to his stupid self-imposed standards. For that Inami punches him and tears up, but her “punch” is only a delicate tap on his chest that lingers there.

She apologizes and runs off, indicating she (and Yamada) still have work to do. But I’m confident that like Yachiyo and Satou, Takanashi and Inami will somehow make it work.

It’s nice every once in a while for my slice-of-life to have some actual plot development in it, especially when it involves Satou Jun and Todoroki Yachiyo, the Working! couple only to Inami+Takanashi in will-they-won’t-they teasing. So ingrained in the show is their hair-pulling futility, that it feels like a HUGE victory when Satou finally, finally asks Yachiyo out for a drink when they both have the day off.

Yachiyo, for her part, is super-excited and super-nervous, as much as someone who never fully opens their eyes can be. She’s wanted to go drinking with a friend for ages, but has no idea what it entails (besdies the drinking, obv).

So she seeks out advice from the staff, along with Kozue, who gets it into the tragically impressionable Yachiyo’s head that new underwear and removing the top layer are of the utmost importance when drinking alcohol. Usually keeping his big sis in check, Souta keeps his distance from this one, but the other ladies are reeled in for their two cents. Yachiyo settles on “normal” underwear, as suggested by the normal-obsessed (and rarely-seen) Matsumoto.

Just seeing Satou in something other than his chef’s jacket, and being reminded how nicely Yachiyo’s katana goes with anything, is an unparalleled pleasure. How many years have we been waiting for this momentous occasion? I was downright giddy. Even better, once Yachiyo drinks, she’s neither a sad nor angry drunk; but mostly the way she usually is, which means she’s prattling on about Kyouko and parfaits as usual…

…Right up until, to Satou’s shock, she changes the subject to something else, of her own accord! To his horror, that subject is underwear, and when he learns where she got her advice, he knows immediately his date’s been tampered with.

Despite this, they both have a good time, because, well, why wouldn’t they? They like each other! Yachiyo earnestly, sweetly thanks him for the good time, and whether it’s the alcohol pumping up that earnestness or intended to have platonic overtones, she wishes he’d stay with her forever. Hearing those words moves Satou to immediate action in the form of a big ol’ HUG and a big ol’ confession to go with it.

And while he blames the alcohol for his forwardness, he doesn’t retract what he said, but sticks by it, every word. At this point, both of these lovebirds are pretty sloshed, and while slinking away, Satou realizes he needs to call a cab for Yachiyo, whose legs have given out. She seems relieved by the chivalrous gesture.

The A-plot was obviously fantastic start-to-finish, but it was also supported by a serviceable B-plot in which Yamada, like Yachiyo, consults most of the staff on a matter of utmost importance to her: how to get Souta to pet her again. The first time he did it cast as spell on her, and she simply wants, nay, needs to be pet more. She tries getting into position, but is asked to move; she ties a chick to her head, but he only pets it; she actually works hard for once, but he only feels her head for a fever.

Finally, Inami (whom Yamada half-joked as her romantic rival) does what Yamada should have done from the start, but couldn’t because of her low standing with Takanashi: simply ask him to pet her. The final twist of the knife is Takanashi being unable to pet her the same way he did the first time, because only Popura can bring out his Petting A-Game. Get your head out of the gutter!

Family, vision, and dating are the three main themes of this week’s Working!!!, starting with the Takanashis who are neither royalty nor do they possess superpowers. They’re a pretty fun and eclectic bunch, however, so the occasional episode where Souta deals with his four sisters (and in his case, his masochistic former brother-in-law).

Souta’s talks with Minegishi as the authorized representative of the family, along with the sight of the somehow-still-twelve Nazuna pushing her shut-in sister Izumi along on a cart, were both highlights of this segment.

When back at work at Wagnaria, Popura and Takanashi collide, and Popura and Yamada remark on how strong and durable Takanashi’s glasses are to have survived not only the occasional collision, but countless punches to the fact from Inami. Unfortunately, when Yamada play-taps the glasses with her stuffed animal, it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s glasses.

Takanashi’s attempts to work despite not being able to see, resulting in a very hazardous situation in which he gets far too close to Inami without warning her first; fortunately for him, she faints on her feet rather than clobbers him into the stratosphere, a nice subversion of the usual bit.

Finally, Satou continues his meandering, half-hearted courtship with Todoroki, who mentions she’s never had alcohol but would like to try it, if only she had someone to drink with. Souma can’t believe it when Satou adds “sometime” to his offer to take her out for a drink, rather than setting a place and a time.

Unlike Minegishi, Souma isn’t the kind of masochist who likes watching this kind of persistent futility, nor am I: we need an episode/segment in which Satou and Todoroki go on a legit date. For that matter, I hope this season allows Takanashi and Inami a date, as well, building off the first two seasons of character work rather than leaving it to gather dust on the shelf.